How to check a string for a given format using PHP?

Question

I have many headlines in my project like:

00.00.2014 - Headline Description e.t.c.

I want to check with php if the given strings contain the format 00.00.0000 - in front. The part after the - doesn't matter.

Can someone help me with something like:

$format = '00.00.0000 -';

if ($string MATCHES $format IN FRONT) {
    // ...some code...
}

i would ask you what you had tried, but i can guess waht the answer to that would be — user557846
– user557846, Commented Jul 31, 2014 at 22:24

William · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-31 22:39:26Z

3

This should work:

if (preg_match("/^\d{2}\.\d{2}\.\d{4}\s\-\s.*$/", $string) === 1) {
    // $string matches!
}

Explanation:

^ is "the beginning of the string"
\d is any digit (0, 1, 2, ..., 9)
{n} means "repeated n times"
\. is a dot
\s is a space
\- is a minus sign
. is "any single character"
* means "repeated 0 or more times`
$ means "end of the string"

answered Jul 31, 2014 at 22:39

William

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2 Comments

user3521471 Over a year ago

Wow aint that some wizardry. Thanks for the explanation! Good answer.

user3482484 Over a year ago

exactly what i needed and thx for the explanation of the preg_macth function. no its clear!!!

user3521471 · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-31 22:32:45Z

I don't have a dev environment to test this out on but i'll give you some psuedocode:

I'm unsure of the context, but you can test this function on any given STRING:

Function:

 Boolean hasCorrectFormat($myString){

         //Here take the string and cut it into a char array.

         $charArray = str_split($myString); 

         //This will give you a char array. Compare the first 12 elements of this
         //array to see if they are correct. If its supposed to be number make
         //sure it is, if its supposed to be a "." make sure it is..etc
         //"00.00.0000 -" is 12 characters. 

         if(!isNumeric(charArray[0])){
             return false;
          }
          else if(!isNumeric(charArray[1])){
               return false;
          }
          else if(charArray[2] != "."){
               return false;
          }
        //so on and so forth.....
           else {return true}
    }

Like i said i can't test this, and i can almost guarantee you this code wont run. This should give you the logic involved though.

Edit: also i wrote this assuming you dont literally mean "00.00.0000" but rather "xx.xx.xxxx" x being any number 0-9. If you need to make sure it is literally zeros then just cut your string to be the first ten chars and compare it.

Peter Noble · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-31 22:37:59Z

0

Use the strpos function. Something like this:

if (strpos($string,'00.00.0000 -') !== true) {
//some code
}

edited Jul 31, 2014 at 22:37

answered Jul 31, 2014 at 22:24

Peter Noble

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2 Comments

William Over a year ago

It doesn't work for the example: 00.00.2014 - Headline Description e.t.c.

Peter Noble Over a year ago

In case you didn't notice and change it yourself, I mistakingly set false instead of true. It's now corrected. But @wil93 's solutions is better.

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